If you made it to the Bold City Brigade/Teal Street Hooligans tailgate on Sunday you got a surprise visit from Jacksonville Jaguars legends Jimmy Smith and Fred Taylor who stopped by before the game. Both spoke and pumped up the crowd and then ran a "circle up" carrying the Jaguars and Bold City Brigade flag.
There were also some cameras there from NFL Films because they're following around two Jaguars greats in Smith and former teammate Keenan McCardell, affectionately nicknamed "Thunder and Lightning" in their hay day during the Jaguars run in the late 1990's. The two will be featured on the series "A Football Life" on NFL Network which will premiere on Friday, Dec. 19, the day after the Jaguars Thursday Night prime time game on NFL Network.
Smith's post-career struggles with addiction is well known and he's been on the road to recovery for a few years. Smith was a guest on the Bold City Football show with myself, John Caputo and former Jaguars linebacker Jeff Kopp last season and gave an update on his recovery. He noted that interacting with Jaguars fans through social media has been an amazing help to his recovery and getting his life straight.
Smith was honored as part of the Jaguars alumni on Sunday with many others for the franchise's 21st birthday at halftime. Hopefully this means that Smith will soon make his way into the Pride of the Jaguars, where he absolutely deserves to be as the team's all-time leading wide receiver and arguably an NFL Hall of Famer.